Originally featured on August 15th, Atlanta Small Business Examiner
by: Sam Dobrow
Click here to see the original article!
Angie Mclean founded Psycho Sisters in 1991 and has grown this consignment store in Little 5 Points into a recognized brand name. Angie grew up in Clearwater. FL and has been an independent spirit since the age of thirteen when she began challenging the logic of what she was told. Even today, she describes her way of thinking as "intelligent rebellion". When she started Psycho Sisters people said "nobody will ever walk into a store with a name like that!" Today, they're eating their words.
Psycho Sisters on Moreland AvenueAfter graduating from University of Florida with a degree in advertising and journalism, Angie tried the corporate job but just didn't fit in. She was miserable and complaining to a friend who challenged her to do something she was passionate about. Angie was passionate about shopping for clothes. She was voted best dressed in high school and loved to shop in consignment stores to create her own fashion statement. It had never occurred to her to open her own store, but with this challenge in front of her, Angie opened her first store buying used clothes and selling them for a profit. This success taught her one key lesson, "allow things to occur to you".
Angie considers herself to be a tough boss. She doesn't micro manage her employees but she has two rules if you want to work in the store. First, "no gossip" and second "don't depend on my approval". These two rules result in an efficient operation and happy employees. Everyone knows their job and is expected to just do it. Without gossip, there isn't any of the productivity-killing office politics.
When she's not working, Angie is single parent to two kids, she loves world travel, and even spends one month each year in Hawaii. But it doesn't stop there, she loves to create, draw, paint, garden, build houses, and go to outdoor concerts. Spiritually, she is focused on the teachings of eastern religions and lives her life by "following the signs" that lead to life's synchronicities.
Sophisticate HipopieHaving become a successful entrepreneur and having matured through the challenges of motherhood, her creative juices are once again flowing. Angie is spawning a new idea "MYJOLLYFAMILY.COM", an Internet business that helps families express their identity through the display of unique character decals on their automobile. This brain child came to her while driving on a vacation and imagining the caricatures of people in cars all around her. She decided to develop and produce a collection of over 2400 family character decals with 4 ethnicities and most purebreed dogs. The decals are meant to be affixed to people's automobiles in groups representing the family in the car. Angie is convinced people relate to these characters as icons of self expression in the same way prehistoric man related to cave paintings - it's a spiritual aspect of human DNA.
After Angie's success with Psycho Sisters, we're expecting great things from MYJOLLYFAMILY.COM. Check out the website www.myjollyfamily.com and find your identity.
